From a doctrinal standpoint they have just as much a chance as do the churchgoers. The churches are full of false teachings, just as much so as the WTBTS. God reads hearts and know who puts faith in the ransom sacrifice of Jesus for forgiveness of sins. I don't think God expects us to have a perfect understanding of the Bible and I don't believe anyone does.
FairMind
JoinedPosts by FairMind
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33
Do you believe that the majority of JW's will be saved?
by JH inif there is a god, do you think that the majority of jw's will be saved at armageddon?.
i'm not asking if they have the only true religion, i'm asking if you think they would be saved along with others who do god's will sufficiently to satisfy him.....
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Taxes...
by Snoozy inwell i am happy.
i don't have to pay taxes this year because i am 65. i just read on the internet that if i do file i will get the tax rebate!..yahoo!.
i can have fun with.... what about you?
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FairMind
Don't get too excited about the tax rebate. It really is just loan until next year. Notice:
Treasury chief: Tax rebate checks to go out in May
- Story Highlights
- IRS gearing up to send out checks of $300-$1,200, treasury secretary says
- House passes economic stimulus plan hours after Senate reached deal
- President Bush's signature assured, officials say
- Bill passes Senate after Democrats, Republicans compromise
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Tax rebate checks will begin going out in May, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said after the House's passage of a Senate-approved $167 billion economic stimulus package Thursday.
The House of Representatives voted 380-34 to send the measure to the president a few hours after Democratic and Republican senators reached accord and ended a dayslong stalemate over the legislation.
Earlier, two White House officials said President Bush would support the package. The bill will be delivered Friday to the White House, with Bush's signing likely sometime next week, Democratic aides said.
The package, which passed the Senate 81-16, will send rebate checks to 130 million Americans in amounts of $300 to $600 for people who have an income between $3,000 and $75,000, plus $300 per child. Couples earning up to $150,000 would get $1,200.
The checks are an advance on next year's refunds, and most, if not all of the money, will be deducted from taxpayers' refunds in 12 months' time. "My team will be sitting down with the IRS tomorrow, and the IRS, right in the middle of tax filing season ... will be working to get checks out," said Paulson, who helped broker the deal.
Paulson said the process of sending the checks would be completed by the end of summer.
The leadership of both parties hailed the efforts that moved the package through Congress.
"You don't see anybody up here gloating about being a winner," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said after the House vote.
"There were no winners or losers in this except the American people, who saw us rise above any differences we might have had and work to agreement on what is the No. 1 issue, and that is our slowing economy."
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said, "The House gave a little, the Senate gave a little. I think that's what the American people expect of us -- to find some way to come together and deal with the problems the American people are facing."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, called the approval an "example of how government is supposed to work." Reid said, "Legislation is the art of compromise, and that compromise comes very hard sometimes. It came very hard this time."
After the House passed a stimulus package last week, Senate Democrats made a number of changes that Republicans would not accept, saying that they were too big and loaded with special-interest provisions.
After Democrats were unable to break a Republican filibuster threat, the leadership headed back to the negotiating table, finally agreeing to leave rebate check amounts at the House level. (Senate Democrats had lowered them and raised the income caps.) The Senate measure also added checks to more than 20 million Social Security beneficiaries and 250,000 handicapped veterans and their widows who were left out of the original House bill.
The Democrats dropped demands for an extension of unemployment benefits, energy assistance for low-income households and tax breaks for energy providers.
"This legislation is not everything that I wanted," Reid said. "But I am very happy."
While the members of Congress and Paulson applauded the bill's quick passage, a survey found that about one in four Americans (26 percent) said they would spend their tax rebates.
Nearly half (46 percent) said they plan to use the rebate to pay off debt and a quarter (28 percent) would save the money, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities, which jointly commissioned the study of 1,005 households between January 31 and Sunday.
"The money will go into the hands of lenders rather than retailers," said Mike Niemira, chief economist of the International Council of Shopping Centers.
The crushing weight of Americans' debt load was underscored Thursday when the Federal Reserve reported Americans owed a record $943.5 billion in credit card debt at the end of December.
Including loans other than mortgages and home equity lines of credit, Americans are shouldering a record $2.5 trillion in debt.
That amount increased during the month by a relatively modest 2.1 percent, an indication that Americans have been restraining their spending.
CNN's Ted Barrett, Allan Chernoff, Brianna Keilar and Ed Henry contributed to this report. -
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Georgia prepares War with Tennessee...
by zeroday intennessee governor calls up the national guard.... .
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23076509/.
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FairMind
My goodness, aren't we all in this together??
I wish! However it appears that there are some who think mussels are more important that people (these be the yankees that live in Florida). Maybe if the draught continues we can all move to Southern California.
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Georgia prepares War with Tennessee...
by zeroday intennessee governor calls up the national guard.... .
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23076509/.
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FairMind
If the state line as currently drawn is incorrect then Georgia deserves to get what ever water resources are within the correct state boundries. If the state boundries are correct as currently defined then it is tough sh** for Georgia.
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One Hit Wonders - What Songs or Groups or Singers did You Like ?
by flipper inat the recommendation of our own minimus , and others i thought i would start this thread on " one hit wonders ".
singers, groups that come and go , hardly ever or never to be heard from again !
so, a few come to my mind here are mine .
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FairMind
Does anyone remember "Nikki Hokki" by P.J. Proby?
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121
One Hit Wonders - What Songs or Groups or Singers did You Like ?
by flipper inat the recommendation of our own minimus , and others i thought i would start this thread on " one hit wonders ".
singers, groups that come and go , hardly ever or never to be heard from again !
so, a few come to my mind here are mine .
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FairMind
"The Horse" - Cliff Nobles
"Rock Your Baby" - George McRae
"Green Tamborine" - Lemon Pipers
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FairMind
NOBODY'S better than Brady!
Is that John Nobody or Phillip Nobody? Which ever one it is I want him as the Falcon's QB next year.
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Anyone here that DOES believe we are in the last days of this system?
by tula injust taking a roll call here.
no empire lasts forever.
no system of government will last forever.
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FairMind
I beleive we are living in the Last Days that Jesus said would come upon the earth. Prophecy is indeed undergoing fulfillment. JWs believe it, Baptist believe it and in fact anyone who truly beleives the Bible probably also believes it. Here is an excerpt from the Trumpet magazine.
"There is a radical difference between the Islamic Republic of Iran and other governments with nuclear weapons. A passage from the Ayatollah Khomeini [the one who got all this state-sponsoring terrorism started] quoted in an 11th-grade Iranian schoolbook, is revealing. “I am decisively announcing to the whole world that if the world-devourers [i.e., the infidel powers] wish to stand against our religion, we will stand against their whole world and will not cease until the annihilation of all them. Either we all become free, or we will go to the greater freedom which is martyrdom. Either we shake one another’s hands in joy at the victory of Islam in the world, or all of us will turn to eternal life and martyrdom. In both cases, victory and success are ours.”
In this context, mutual assured destruction [mad], the deterrent that worked so well during the Cold War, would have no meaning.[T]he idea that somehow Israel could live with a nuclear Iran is … problematic as a possible line of policy. It presupposes that a nuclear Iran can be deterred just like the Soviet Union during the Cold War. … Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is known to be a follower of the Mahdaviat, radical Shiite associations in Iran [that] believe in the imminent return of an Islamic savior, known as the Twelfth Imam—or Mahdi (literally, the “Rightly Guided”). Adherents to these associations moreover believe that the Mahdi’s arrival can be accelerated by man through apocalyptic chaos and violence." Here's the link to the whole article http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=4717.2983.0.0
IMHO this is serious stuff and even if it is 2010 before Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ushers in the Mahdi's arrival by starting a nuclear war, that's only two years away. Men cannot stop the global catastrophy that this religious fanatic and his crowd will usher in. Remember that Jesus said that if those days were not cut short there would be no flesh spared. The only hope we have IMO is to turn to God and not stick our heads in the sand and pretend that the end can't come. It can and it will.
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What is the motives of the GB?
by sweet pea inok guys and dolls, want your input here.
a friend of mine has a question...... .
"the brothers in bethel/headquarters seem very sincere and loving - what possible motive would they have in trying to deceive people, what do they get out of it?
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FairMind
I believe their motives are right in their eyes. They sincerely believe they are making decisions that are in the best interests of the organization and the brotherhood as a whole. Of course they do delude themselves to a degree. As far as all the freebies they have they are still in an institutional situation. Prisoners have a lot of freebies too but like the GB are not really free to pursue interests outside of the institution. I wouldn’t trade places with a GB member as I value my freedom too much.
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did anyone on here ever have a paedophile in thier congregation?
by looloo inif so, did it bother you that he had been reprooved and forgiven rather than reported to the police?
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FairMind
We have a brother in my congregation who is a registered sex offender. I discovered this when I was checking my county’s listing of sex convicted sex offenders and saw his name there. The details were aggravated sexual assault and child molestation. Appears that the crime involved only one child but it was serious enough that he served eleven years in prison.
I don’t know if this is common knowledge in the congregation or not (no announcement). I do know that this brother always has an elder accompanying him when in field service. As far as I’m concerned, he did the crime and he served his time and I forgive him. Still, people need to be aware of what he did (i.e... Sex offender websites,etc.), especially people with children.
Child molestation is a terrible sin but is very prevalent in the world in general. However, I would caution people to not think it is any worse in the JWs than everywhere else. Cover ups are wrong for sure but the truth is that cover ups are not a JW anomaly.